New pub honours 100mph TT hero

Pub chain Wetherspoon has named its new boozer in Caerphilly after a Welsh TT hero who lived in the town. The Malcolm Uphill, which opened on Cardiff Road yesterday, celebrates the life of the first man to record a production bike 100mph TT lap – which Uphill did on a Bonneville in 1972.

The pub was set to be called the Billingsley Rose, before a call by resident John Owen appealing for the two-time TT winner to be honoured was heard by Wetherspoon.

Eddie Talbot, chairman of the Malcolm Uphill Commemorative Committee said: “If anybody was interested in motorcycle racing, he was as near as a god as you could get for a youngster.

“You would put him on a motorcycle and he would win – it didn’t matter what motorcycle it was, he would win. He was totally without fear. He was quite a character around thetown, but he was a gentleman and very unassuming.”

MCN reader Michael Greenhaf says it’ll be a welcome new destination: “There’s biker cafes in Llandovery and Aberdare, but this will be great for Caerphilly. The name has touched a lot of hearts in the area. He was very modest.

“I lived opposite him for 25 years and it was fifteen yearsbefore I knew he’d raced bikes, and only at his funeral when people arrived from places as far away as Australia I realised how well-known he’d been.” Uphill died in 1999.